Week Twenty - May 21, 2010

This electronic publication, known as The Advocate, is brought to you each Friday by your Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with our friends at Devine Millimet & Branch, and ActiveEdge. Please use this piece to review what has happened in Concord this past week, read about our Chamber's lobbying efforts relating to those activities, and preview what we are doing on behalf of our Chamber members in the coming week.

This Week’s Update

State Budget Roller Coaster Continues

The latest twist in the State budget debate happened on Wednesday, and it was a major one. Remember that the House version of the budget had been stuck onto Senate Bill 450 by the House. The Senate voted to simply “non-concur” with the House amendments, which killed SB 450. The Senate then amended House Bill 1128, to put the Senate’s budget proposal (which includes gaming) into that bill.

It looked as if it was all going to come down to a game of who blinks first. The House was confronted with the decision of whether to ask for negotiations on HB 1128, or to return serve to the Senate by non-concurring and letting their budget proposal die, thereby leaving neither the House nor the Senate budget bills alive.

Despite the brinksmanship that seemed to be in the works, ultimately the House and Senate leadership apparently did a deal over the past several days: the Senate would reconsider its decision to kill SB 450, and would ask for a committee of conference on that bill. In return, the House would ask for a committee of conference on HB 1128. That is in fact what the House and Senate did this past Wednesday, and the end result is that both the House and the Senate budget proposals are still in play. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that the House and the Senate will be able to reach an agreement before the deadline for all committees of conference to close by next Thursday. But it seems hard to imagine that this deal would have been struck if the leadership of both bodies were not planning on the House and Senate coming to terms on something. Almost anything could happen. Don’t forget that it was the committee of conference on the budget last year that brought us the now-infamous LLC tax. So we have to be watchful, considering the fact that the House version of the budget includes a reinstatement of the much-maligned estate tax, as well as an attempt to return the Insurance Premium tax to 2%.

The budget conference committee has its first public meeting on Monday at 10 a.m.

Gaming Panel Issues Its Report

Closely tied up in all of the budget discussions is the gaming issue. Yesterday, the Gaming Study Commission that was appointed by Governor Lynch finally issued its 175-page report. Our preliminary look at this report indicates that the Commission found that expanded gaming would generate additional societal and economic costs, but that it would also generate additional revenues and economic activity. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Commission recommended the development of further data and said that further analysis needs to be done. It sounds to us like there is not really a lot that is new in this report.

We will look at this in more detail over the coming days, but our Chamber is still supporting the gaming proposal that is in HB 1128.

Signals From Parliamentary Battles?

The House had a hard time getting going on Wednesday. After a delay of almost an hour to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the historic visit of Marquis de Lafayette to New Hampshire, the House spent the next couple of hours tussling over the propriety of a motion made by the Chair of the House Finance Committee concerning the budget bills. Representative Marjorie Smith moved that the House request a committee of conference on the amendments to HB 1128 only if the Senate asked for a committee of conference on SB 450 by 3:00 p.m. that same day. The debate on this motion took so long that it almost became a moot point, and even at the end of the day when the House voted on HB 1128 as the last bill of the afternoon, there was still a question about whether the Senate had indeed acted by 3:00 p.m. Although these parliamentary wrangles have a certain fascination in and of themselves, the essentially party-line votes on all of the motions do send a significant message: the Democratic majority in the House is maintaining its discipline. Going into these votes on the budget proposals, there was some level of speculation that Democratic House members favoring an income tax or a sales tax might prefer to see both SB 450 and HB 1128 fail, so as to create a situation where a new non-gaming revenue source would be the last alternative available. The fact that the Democratic caucus in the House has stayed pretty solid on all of these votes is a pretty good indication that the speculation concerning a purposefully apocalyptic finale to the budget bills probably can be dismissed.

LLC Tax Repeal Still Alive

Amid all the goings-on at the end of the session, the repeal of the LLC tax is still going strong. At this point, the repeal is contained in three bills: the two budget bills (SB 450, HB 1128) and HB 1607. Right now, at least, it would be pretty surprising if the repeal did not successfully go through. Through all of the amendments which have happened on the bills surrounding HB 1607, the commitment of the House and the Senate to get this repeal done is unquestionable. Indeed, the mere fact that HB 1607 made it through last week without any significant change seems to have been a very powerful vote of support from the Senate. It is interesting to note that, when the Senate was looking for a strong vehicle to which the gaming amendment could be attached (in other words, a bill thata the House wanted very badly and therefore that the House would not want to die in the committee of conference) the Senate stayed away from HB 1607, which would seem to have been a likely candidate for use as the gaming vehicle. So, if HB 1607 passes and the LLC tax is repealed, it could be that among the many people that the business community will have to thank will be the members of the Senate who made the difficult decision to leave HB 1607 alone.

Senator Roberge To End Her Senate Career

Early this week came the surprising news that Senator Sheila Roberge, whose district includes Bedford, Greenfield, Lyndeborough, Merrimack, Mont Vernon and New Boston, will not seek re-election this fall. Senator Roberge is the Dean of the Senate, having served in the Senate since 1984. She has been a strong voice for business, and a courteous and honorable presence in the Senate throughout her career. The Chamber thanks her for her many years of service and wishes her well in the future.

Acknowledgements

This weekly update is made possible by the generous support of Devine Millimet & Branch, one of the state’s top law firms and our Chamber’s contracted representative in Concord. If your business has a legislative or local issue that needs strategic consulting and attention, they are a valuable resource that can help navigate you through both local and state processes.

This weekly update is designed and maintained by our friends at ActiveEdge, and we thank them for their help in delivering this piece to your inbox every Friday!

If you have questions about this update, or comments to share with us about other issues in Concord, please email Chris Williams at cwilliams@nashuachamber.com. We want to be sure we're representing you to the best of our ability, so do not hesitate to reach out to us!

J. Christopher Williams
President & CEO
Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce
151 Main St.
Nashua, NH 03060
Phone: 603.881.8333
Fax: 603.881.7323